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Portret van Isabella Clara Eugenia, infante van Spanje

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Portret van Isabella Clara Eugenia, infante van Spanje

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Portret van Isabella Clara Eugenia, infante van Spanje. Het portret is gevat in een ornamentele omlijsting met guirlandes van bladeren en bloemen. Midden onder een cartouche met haar naam en titel in het Latijn.

A cartouche or cartouch is an oval design with a slightly convex surface, typically edged with ornamental scrollwork. It is used to hold a painted or low relief design. In Early Modern design, since the early 16th century, the cartouche is a scrolling frame device, derived originally from Italian cartoccia. Such cartouches are characteristically stretched, pierced and scrolling (illustration, left). Another cartouche figures prominently in the title page of Giorgio Vasari's Lives, framing a minor vignette with a device of pierced and scrolling papery cartoccia.

Spanish collar, ruff or gorgera first appeared about 1560, and was at first open at the neck. After 1570 it becomes closed. It was gradually increasing in diameter reaching 25-30 cm, and by the 1580s the collar became known as the “millstone” or “cartwheel” which required a supporting frame. The collar was made from layers of plaited linen or lace. The Dutchwoman Dangen van Pless at the court of the English Queen Elizabeth I introduced starch that was initially yellowish, which made the collars creamy. Some tinted them with saffron in a golden hue and dyed them with natural dyes in pink or lilac colors. The rigidity of gorgera forced its owner to keep his posture, and for his impracticality, ruff became a symbol of wealth and status and contributed to the spread of the fork, the use of which made it possible to protect the collar from soiling with food. Gorgers were banned in Spain by King Philip IV. Spain was involved in endless wars against the growing Protestant world and in desperate need for cash. Philip announced an austerity program, condemned extravagance, and introduced the concept of simple, pragmatic living. Forcing people to live pragmatically was fairly difficult. Eventually, the inquisition found a way - it banned the ruffed collars and starch, as a "tool of the devil". Alquacils, inquisition enforcers of justice, were armed with scissors and prowled the streets of Madrid enforcing the ban. Shops were raided and gorgera merchandise burned. By the middle of the 17th century, ruff had decreased in diameter and almost did not use starch. The fashion lingered longer in the Dutch Republic, where ruffs can be seen in portraits well into the seventeenth century. In Germany and Flanders, ruff was worn until the beginning of the 18th century. In the 18th century, it remained for a long time among the Jews as an obligatory part of the costume.

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Date

1644 - 1650
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Source

Rijksmuseum
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Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication ("CCO 1.0 Dedication")

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